The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1887-08-20

most grevious tOrments in soul and body;
without intermission, in hell fire forever" :"
do not believe that mob of lynchers
had such fearful conceptions of the
doom into which they were sending
Hong Di. They probably regarded him
as troublesome member of society,
were especially prejudiced against him
because he was a Chinaman, and put
him out of the way, without stopping
to think much about the ultimate con-
sequences.
But what if they did have such deep
malice in their hearts, as "Oldschool"
attributes to them? 1t is not too much
to say that in the sight of God, their
crime was of a deeper crimson than the
crime of poor Hong Di. The heather
lad of seventeen, only murdered the
body, but that crowd of lynchers, not
only hung Hong Di, but sent his soul
bowling into a hopeless hell, of endless
horror and despair. Here is another
marvellous thing Oldschool" is a
Christian minister of many years stand
ing, and yet in his entire article he does
not breathe one word of sympathy or
sorrow for the doom of that poor heath
en- lad. Does he not know that that Chi
nese lad was just as much a child of
God, as any one of that mob of lynchers,
just as much child of the "All Father"
as he is himself? Has he no sorrow for
the doom of Hong Di, or for the bill
lions of heather that perish as hope
lessly as he? If he has no compassion
for them, does he adequately represent
the infinitely compassionate Jesus :?
Christ died for all Was not this Hong
Di one of the ''all'' for whom Jesus
died? There is another strange thing
in this article. The author cheerfully
puts atheists and materialists and
Universalists in the same category of
unbelievers or misbelievers. Perhaps
this ought to be expected from one of
"Oldschool's" views, but how about
such statement as this? Speaking of
the lynchers, he says, right after the
sentence, "Hence, they must have be-
lieved in hell" eff they had been ma
terialists, thinking with Col. Ingersoll,
that death ends all, or if they had been
Universalists, thinking that everybody
goes to heaven as soon as he dies" A
man of ''OldschooPs'' intelligence ought
to know better than to think the views
of Universalists are represented ade
quately by such a crude statement as
that everybody goes to heaven as soon
as he dies" That is not the belief of
the Universalist church at all, and it is
shameful misrepresentation to say
that it is. With us, heaven is not so
much a place as state of perfect love
and holiness in the heart. No denom-
ination of Christians teach more en-
phatically than do we, the doctrine i'm
piled in the words of Jesus BLESSED
are the pure in heart, for they shall see
God" According to our doctrine and
uniform teaching, it is contradiction
in terms to say that bad people go to
heaven. None but those who are
perfectly holy, can have part in that
ideal state of love, and peace, and rest,
we call heaven. To say, then, that
Universalists believe that everybody"
good and bad, irrespective of character
'goes to heaven as soon as he dies is
a vile slander, unworthy to be repeated
by "a Christian minister, in soprominent
a religious paper as the Interior.
"Oldschool's" own doctrine comes
much nearer to sending wicked people
to heaven than does ours. For has it
not always been a doctrine of his
"schOol," that the vilest sinner, if he
repent just one second before he
breathes his last, goes right into heaven,
without suffering any penalty for all
Lis crimes? "OldschoOl' seems to take
it for granted, that because Hong Di
was hung for murder, he went to hell.
"Hence they, (the mob of lynchers)
must have believed in hell, and they
sent their victim to that bad place, Per
haps "OldschoOl" reached this cOnclu-
sion, because poor Hong Di was
'heathen Chinee, - for, we have thought
for number of years past, they had been
sending "Christians,n who are hung
for murder the other way.
We give this typical instance among
many. A man perpetrates nameless
outrage upon beautiful and innocent
young lady, as she was returning from
a days work in teaching school, and
murdered her to conceal the crime.
He was tried and convicted, and sent
enced to be hung for the crime of MUIR
der. He was visited by preachers Of
the gospel in his cell. professed to re-
pent, and in a speech made from the
scaffOld, stated his confident belief that
he was "going to Jesus" and invited
all of the assembled crowd to meet
him in heaven If his victim died,
unrepentant, of course, she went the
other way.
After dwelling upon the probable
effects of lecture by Col. IngersOn, or
a sarn,Op nv Essouaa aIO0uant TTpivaraa1